Cassandra's Official City of Bones playlist

Included below is Cassandra Clare's official playlist for The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones. Music is a huge part of any adolescent's life, and you can truly engage them with the content by including it. After the playlist, three different activity ideas are listed.

Song Name:

Standing
Demons
Hello, My Treacherous Friends
Hold On, Hold On
Chocolate
Ballad of Maxwell Demon
I Know I Know I Know
Pretty When You Cry
Caught By the River
The Crane Wife 3
Morningstar
Bones
My Heart
I Will Follow You Into The Dark

Artist:

Vnv nation
Guster
Ok Go
Neko Case
Snow Patrol
Shudder to Think
Tegan and Sara
VAST
Doves
The Decemberists
AFI
Embrace
The Perishers
Death Cab for Cutie

Activity One: Song Analysis

Have the students pick one of the songs from the playlist above. Ask the students to analyze the lyrics and determine which part of the story that the song relates to. The students should cite textual evidence from the book as well as lyrics from the song to show a relative connectivity between the two ideas. 

Activity Two: Create your own Playlist

Have students create a brief 5-7 song playlist that accounts for major sections of the novel. The students must come up with textual evidence from the book that justifies their selection of the song, as well as a brief summary of the song content. 

Activity three: Create a song

For the truly creative spirits: have your students, if they have the ability, compose a song for the novel. Students with musical talent are strongly encouraged to follow this route, as it truly engages them with the text on a very emotional level. See the video below for an example of a song written by a fan of the novels. (Side note: the song is now in negotiations to be a part of the official film soundtrack!)